RAJSHAHI, Aug 23, 2019 (BSS) – Forest department’s participatory
afforestation programme benefited around 47,000 marginalized farmers in the
region including its vast Barind tract by providing them dividend as their
legitimate share for looking after trees, an official said.
“The participatory social afforestation programme has improved living and
livelihood conditions of some 47000 poor and landless farmers through
increasing their income to some extent as they get profit share after being
sold trees following 10 years of plantation,” Divisional Forest Officer Ahmed
Niamur Rahman told BSS.
Participatory afforestation activities have been enhanced in order to
encourage the rural people in planting saplings and nursing of the
transplanted trees, he said.
Rahman said the department has been implementing various lucrative
programmes in all 31 upazilas of Rajshahi, Chapainawabganj, Natore and
Naogaon districts.
People of the respective areas were given responsibilities to look after
the planted saplings and they get 55 per cent share of the sale after 10
years of plantation while 20 per cent and five percent are distributed among
land owners and local government institution concerned, he said.
Successful implementations of the social forestry programme always
supplement the government’s poverty reduction effort with facing the adverse
impact of climate change in the drought-prone area, he added.
Profitable afforestation activities encouraged many people to plant
saplings of wood, medicinal and fruit-bearing trees at homesteads, roadsides,
office premises, embankments, forest areas, religious institutions’ premises
and other places, he said.
Woodlot forest on 2,051.61 hectares of land, agro-forestry on 407.65
hectares and char land forest on 721 hectares have, so far, been created, he
said, adding that forestation has been created on 4,686.29-kilometer railway
and connecting road lands, 1,621.05-kilometer river embankment and 175-
kilometer canal embankments.
The department has earned more than Taka 62.18 crore through selling trees
from 6,538.94-kilometer steep garden, 2,106.11-hectare woodlot garden and
407.65-hectare agro-garden, sources said.
From the earned money, over Taka 30.18 crore were paid among beneficiary
farmers as their profit-shares and Taka 4.85 crore among land owners and
institutions while the government got Taka 19.19 crore as revenue, they said.
Over Taka 7.95 crore are being spent for rebuilding garden in the areas
where trees have already been sold, they added.
In last 2018-19 fiscal, four beneficiaries Hamid Mondal, Abdul Quddus,
Jewel Rana and Russel Hossain received over Taka 26.41 lakh as profit share.
Meanwhile, the Barind Multipurpose Development Authority (BMDA) has planted
around 2.58 crore saplings of various fruit, timber and herbal trees in
different areas to protect environment and meet the growing demands for
fruits and timber in the region.
BMDA Executive Director Engineer Abdur Rashid said the tree plantation
activities will ultimately help reduce carbon in atmosphere at substantial
level and that is very important to face the adverse impact of climate change
in the Barind tract.